Author: Press Room
Popular Wellington brew bar Fortune Favours has announced it will be closing its doors at the end of this week after eight years in business. In a post to social media last night, its owners said the Leeds Street pub would permanently close on Sunday, August 31.They said the closure was caused by the cost-of-living crisis, which had “proven too difficult for us to navigate”. A popular Wellington bar’s closure is another victim of the prevailing economic headwinds. (Source: 1News)”We’re 20% down on last year, which was already 25% down on the year before. “This is not sustainable.”The brew bar’s…
Employers opting to stop contributing to their staff’s KiwiSaver accounts when they turn 65 may be costing them thousands of dollars.Westpac is calling for employers to continue to make contributions to employees who are over 65 and wants the Government to consider making it compulsory.At present, employers can usually stop the contributions once someone reaches 65. Government contributions also stop when the person becomes eligible for NZ Super.Nigel Jackson, chief executive of BT Funds Management, Westpac’s KiwiSaver provider, said continuing contributions could make a meaningful difference to a person’s retirement savings.”Over the past three years, 54% of our KiwiSaver customers…
The number of couples getting married or entering into civil unions dropped in 2024, according to Stats NZ, continuing a downward trend in those tying the knot. In 2024, a total of 18,033 couples living in New Zealand got married or entered into a civil union — a 4% drop from 2023, when there were 18,744.The figures released today were also 14% lower than the 1990s, which had an average of 20,950 marriages per year. Stats NZ population estimates, projections, and coverage spokesperson Rebekah Hennessey said the rates of marriage had fallen from one generation to the next. She said…
The government has signed off on a plan to ease alcohol restrictions, pledging fewer hurdles for bars and bottle stores, as first revealed by RNZ earlier this month.The proposed changes to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act would make it harder for people to block liquor licences and simpler for ministers to declare one-off special trading hours for pubs or clubs screening major sport or cultural events.Speaking at Auckland’s Lula Inn on Thursday morning, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee said the shake-up was “careful and considered”, and designed to remove pointless or unhelpful barriers.”It’s not about getting pissed,” she…
By Carolina Cardoso & Damaso Jaivenois Published on 29/08/2025 – 13:37 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT Dangerously hight traffic noise levels are putting nearly 112 million people at risk of serious long-term health issues, according to the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) report. Road traffic is the main source of noise pollution, affecting about 92 million people across the EU. By comparison, railway noise affects 18 million people, and air traffic impacts about 2.6 million. France has the highest number of people exposed to transport noise above the EU’s safety limit, with 24 million affected. Nearly 90% of this is caused by road traffic. At night,…
MetService said settled conditions are set to “rapidly deteriorate” from today, warning of impending “heavy, persistent and thundery” weather across the country. The forecaster said strong winds, thunderstorms and rain had already hit the South Island, with gusts of 116km/h recorded at Mount Cook Airport, 112km/h at Roxburgh Airport and 98km/h in Wallacetown this morning. A band of rain with blustery northerly winds would also move onto the North Island. ‘Nasty, gnarly weather’ – watch Daniel Corbett on TVNZ+”Additionally, there is a chance of thunderstorms with heavy rain and small hail for Taranaki this evening. “Furthermore, the chance of thunderstorms…
ADVERTISEMENT When the 27 foreign affairs ministers of the European Union meet in Copenhagen on Saturday, they will face one burning question: What do we sanction next? Russia’s relentless campaign of killing and terrorising Ukrainian civilians, which this week severely damaged the EU delegation in Kyiv, has hardened the resolve to tighten the screws on Moscow’s war economy and force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. “The discussions are ongoing, and as you know, we always put a lot of things on the table. And then eventually we have to agree,” High Representative Kaja Kallas said on Friday upon arrival…
Disruptions are expected amid “substantial works” to resurface and rebuild parts of Transmission Gully this summer. Mark Owen, NZTA regional manager Lower North Island/Top of the South, said the agency was working with Ventia – the maintenance contractor for the section of State Highway 1 – on resurfacing, drainage, and rebuild works over the summer maintenance period between October and March. The cost of the work “is still to be quantified,” Owen said. The planned works come just three-and-a-half years after the $1.25 billion stretch of road opened to the public.“Substantial works are planned and are part of remaining work…
A Wellington woman who ran over her mother while drunk at the wheel after a tangi in Lower Hutt has avoided prison, and has instead been sentenced to 11 months’ home detention.Tepaea Awatere, 25, pleaded guilty in June to reckless driving causing the death of her mother, 60-year-old Vanessa Houpapa, and injuring another, in Naenae in March.Justice Grau told the High Court in Wellington today there was no motive for the crime, which was the “utter tragedy” of the situation.Tepaea was “in a bad state, made worse by alcohol” following a family tangi.”When she tried to leave, and her mother…
More than a hundred unionised staff at Stuff have gone on strike, saying “journalists have taken hit after hit” of “insulting” pay offers at the media company.Members of union E tū walked off the job at 3pm to join picket lines planned at Stuff’s Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Hamilton newsrooms.The move represented the most recent low point between the publisher of the country’s largest news website and its unionised journalists. E tū director Michael Wood told 1News that around 160 staff are on strike today, representing “the overwhelming majority of working journalists”. Auckland-based Stuff journalist and union delegate Sapeer Mayron…